Animals-Adding Taxonomy Change Event

Changing a taxonomy in an animal record.

Any global Taxonomic changes made by Species360 will create 'Pending Taxonomic Changes' for species you hold. This document is how to change a Taxonomy in your local animal records. There are several reasons that you may want to change a Taxonomy including:

It may have been entered incorrectly
You may have received an animal from another institution and you disagree with the Taxonomy assigned
New information may have been found that determines a different Taxonomy

You can always edit a Taxonomy that you have recorded, or add a new one. This will display as your Local view. However, the Global view of the taxonomy will remain as entered by the initiator of the record if it is not you.

To edit/add a taxonomy, open the animal/group record > Details tab > Taxonomy/Sex Type/Collection. To edit a taxonomy that was incorrectly entered during the time a accessioning, highlight the line and select View/Edit selected.

1.Accept the default for the Date of Change as it will be the date of your Accession.

2.The Change Time is not mandatory and only becomes important if you change the Taxonomy several times on the same date.

3.Select the Taxonomy Determination from the dropdown list.

4.Enter the correct/updated Taxonomy

The new Taxonomy will now display in the grid. This method does not keep a history of what the original Taxonomy was. It is recommended that you record a Note regarding this using a Note Type of Animal Information and a Keyword of Taxonomy Change.

If you want to track the changing Taxonomy you should select Actions > Taxonomy Change Event.

This time there will be no date default. Record the date you want to use for the Taxonomy change. The remaining fields are the same as the Edit screen. The change will display in the grid.

This method allows you to track a Taxonomic change. You can see that you believed the animal to be an Ameraucana chicken from 8 May 2018 until 1 November 2019 when it was corrected to Plymouth Rock chicken. This history may help you understand management decisions made during that time period.

To edit/change a Taxonomy recorded by another institution.

If the taxonomy was recorded by another institution you cannot edit their record. You can, however, record an edit in the taxonomy for your record.

Below, Cleveland recorded the species as Macropus fuliginosus . When you received the animal, it was identified as Macropus giganteus so you edited your record. In the record both taxonomy records will be displayed associated with what institution recorded the information.

It will display as a conflict in Basic Info. Globally, the taxonomy will be displayed as per the originator (in this case Macropus fuliginosus ). The taxonomy will be displayed locally as per what your institution recorded (in this case Macropus giganteus ). The only way to remove this conflict is to get the originator of the record to change the Taxonomy.

Best Practices

If you change the taxonomy it is suggested to record a Note with details as to why you made the change. In addition, contacting other holders is recommended. If you are a subsequent holder the originator of the information may agree to change the taxonomy they entered, thus changing the global view of the taxonomy. If you are the originator of the information, subsequent holders may desire that information to correct their records.

Revised 5 March 2025